barking dog and his inconsiderate owner -- any suggestions?

[delaney]

The dog is only barking for a few minutes. It is not an all day thing. I know it is annoying but WOW!!! Maybe she does not want the dog using the whole yard as a bathroom?? That may be the spot for it. All neighbors will bother at times. It is inevitable. I personally would not complain if it was a few minutes of barking. I don't know. I am a pretty toleratble person though and I kinda feel live and let live on most subjects. What if a neighbor had a fussy baby? One that cried all night with the colic? If you could hear it would you really call the police on it? I hope you get to solve your problem. The air horn was an idea though, but possibly something quieter so the whole area don't hear? Like a noise that can startle him but not loud enough so that it startles others. You don't wanna become a problem for others. I don't think you can throw water if it is not on your property. Oh wait a second.. Set up a sprinkler turn it on and aim it at the fence that may make it go away. You are just watering your lawn. I just hope it can be resolved in a peaceful manner.

My perspective is this. I have a neighbor that knows their dogs will bark but let them out at 6:45 every morning when the high school kids are on their way to the bus. It only takes a few barks of these loud dogs between our two houses to wake my kids. Do I want my kids up at 6:45? Does it ruin my whole morning because I have no time to get my stuff when the toddler comes wandering down the stairs? Yes it does. If she has spoken to the neighbor and not gotten resolution shouldn't she take more measures. If you own dogs and live in close houses then you need to take measures to keep them quiet. I don't get why having a dog and it barking is a right.:confused: Responsible ownership is the issue. A crying baby is not comparable to a dog standing outside your windows barking.

[Murphy101]

The dog barks for between 5 and 15 minutes or so -- sometimes less, sometimes more. The owner gets in the shower while he's out there. :glare:

 

Yes, the city has noise ordinances. Excessive, disruptive noise not permitted between 10 pm and 7 am.

 

The dog's barking is at least as loud as a scream. He is about 6 feet from our heads while we sleep. She could EASILY keep him on the other side of the house. We'd still hear him, but he wouldn't jar us

 

how would you feel if your neighbor allowed her children out at 4, 5, 6, 7 a.m. to scream by your bedroom window? Year after year?

 

Anything less than 15 minutes is reasonable to me. If she wants to shower, that is her prerogative. Good grief, now you want to complain about when she showers.

 

Aside from that, whether the dog barks for a minute or two or longer doesn't much matter because once he starts you have been started out of your beds.

 

And I hate to tell you this, but during the summer months, my kids are very often out running, yelling and playing in the yard as early as 6am. It's just too hot to play later in the day. I don't spend a small fortune to live here and have a fenced yard to be told by my neighbors when and how to use my own property or whether it's okay for my kids to play or not.

 

I sure don't see my neighbor asking me before starting wood working projects or buying motorcycles either. It all evens out as far as I'm concerned.

 

I think the fact may be that she wants to be able to just open the door, let him out, and get in the shower. She doesn't want to make the effort to get him back in the house. And she doesn't really care if it jolts us awake.

 

At this point, she probably doesn't. Regardless, as I already said, once he has jolted you awake, it's a moot point anyways.

 

Call the cops if you think it's an ordinance offense, but I bet they won't agree if it's less than 15 minutes. Buy a sprinkler on timer and the silencer dog thing. Personally, I'm not sure why you've been griping for years instead of having already tried those things.

 

I guess part of that depends on where you live. In our area, if you are out at 6am, you'll see lights on in most of the houses. People get up early to commute to work. If they have dogs, they have to let them out at around that time, and I don't think it's fair that this woman should have to walk the dog on a leash when she has a fenced yard to let him out in.

 

Cat

 

Yes. Same here. And no, my dog is not a barker.

[msjones]

I guess part of that depends on where you live. In our area, if you are out at 6am, you'll see lights on in most of the houses. People get up early to commute to work. If they have dogs, they have to let them out at around that time, and I don't think it's fair that this woman should have to walk the dog on a leash when she has a fenced yard to let him out in. (I also don't think he should be out there barking for more than 5 minutes, though.)

 

That said, I did suggest to the OP that she check her local ordinances to see if she has any recourse, and I do think that, unless it poses some sort of danger to the dog, the woman could let the dog out on the other side of her house -- but she probably won't do that if the OP is unpleasant about it.

 

Cat

 

Yes, people are getting up and leaving at that hour. But they aren't standing by their neighbor's windows screaming. I see how other neighbors care for their dogs in the mornings; they take them out on leashes and then bring them right back in. No shrieking barks required.

 

Would you honestly be okay with your neighbors rhythmically screaming outside your window as long as it was "only for a few minutes?"

 

And as far as my being "unpleasant", I'm sure I sound very unpleasant in this thread because I'm so fed up.

 

But, in my opinion, part of the problem is how dang pleasant and nice and turn-the-other-cheekish we've been to this woman. We've approached her very calmly and respectfully about her shrieking, screeching doggie.

 

She thinks we have a great neighborly relationship. That's because we smile and wave, make very little noise, keep a pretty yard, a painted house, and don't bother her. My kids play at the nearby park, not in our yard, so she's almost never disturbed.

 

I'm bowing out of this thread now. I'll be prayerfully reading some Proverbs and some Gospel teachings about loving my neighbor instead. Hopefully, I'll be enlightened.

[Catwoman]

Would you honestly be okay with your neighbors rhythmically screaming outside your window as long as it was "only for a few minutes?"

 

It's not your neighbor; it's her dog. When we had the same issue, it was with multiple dogs -- and they were LOUD. But they had to go out in the morning, and I understood that dogs like to let the world know they're around, so I dealt with it. My neighbor owned his home, too, and I felt that he had a right to let his dogs out in his own fenced yard so they could do their business. I think it's ridiculous to suggest that a homeowner has to get up extra early so she can walk her dog instead of letting him out into her own yard. This dog isn't roaming the streets; he's in his own yard. And he's not barking all day and night; it's a few minutes in the morning. If there's a law prohibiting barking at that time of day, you can file a complaint if it's that important to you.

 

And as far as my being "unpleasant", I'm sure I sound very unpleasant in this thread because I'm so fed up.

 

I only based that comment on your statement that said,

We've started being more confrontational --getting out of bed, knocking on her door, and hollering at the dog.

 

I'm sorry if I made an incorrect assumption, but if you're yelling at her dog and knocking on her door to complain about him, you may not have a neighborly relationship for much longer.

 

I'm bowing out of this thread now. I'll be prayerfully reading some Proverbs and some Gospel teachings about loving my neighbor instead. Hopefully, I'll be enlightened.

 

I don't think you have to love your neighbor, and if your local laws prohibit barking dogs at 6am, I think you have every right to file a complaint. My only point was that this sort of thing is, unfortunately, a price you pay when you live in close quarters.

 

I'm surprised your neighbor hasn't suggested that you move your bedroom to the other side of your house. ;)

 

Cat

[kokotg]

I'm kind of surprised by some of the responses here. I'm usually on the more dog friendly side of threads like this. I have three dogs, and they go out at 6 or 6:30 in the morning, and we live on an acre lot, but I would never dream of leaving them out there barking for longer than it took me to get to the door and let them in. My husband's usually the one who lets them out in the morning, since he gets up first. Occasionally he falls asleep on the couch while they're out and I need to call down to wake him up when the dogs start barking. I feel really guilty when they bark for more than a few seconds. I dunno...maybe I have a different perspective because I don't have especially yappy dogs...if they're barking it's usually because they want to come back in. But, honestly, I would find it really annoying to have a dog barking right outside my house for 15 straight minutes even it were in the middle of the day...for one thing, it would drive MY dogs crazy. If it were in the middle of the day, I'd just suck it up, but at 5 or 6 in the morning? I'm super non-confrontational, but I'm pretty sure even I would say something. I don't think it's too much to ask for the neighbor to wait 3 minutes longer to get in the shower so she can let the dog back in when it starts barking.

[Catwoman]

I wouldn't leave a tiny little Yorkie outside while I took a shower, anyway -- I'd be concerned about his safety. It sounds like he's a scrappy little guy, but he could be stolen or injured in a few seconds.

 

Cat

[RanchGirl]

I absolutely think it's rude to let your dog bark more than once or twice early in the morning, or longer than it takes to get from the kitchen table to the back door. If the dog won't come when you call, then you can't responsibly let the dog out without a leash/fence/electric fence type thing. My dog goes out around 7 but she doesn't bark unless no one is there to open the door. She quietly waits about half a minute then gives one bark. She really wants back in the house as soon as possible because she knows it's breakfast time and she LOOOOVES meal time. I would not send her out and then go take a shower -- that's either intentionally rude or quite stupid, or both, especially if the yard is not fenced.

 

But it doesn't really matter what I think is 'rude', or what you think is rude, or what the Hive thinks is rude. It matters what you are going to do about this. Here are your choices as I see them:

 

option A: If you want to lose whatever possible neighborly relationship you might have, call animal control and/or the police. I believe the police can advise you about noise ordinances. If that doesn't work, then try the air horn method mentioned above. All of these are going to put you in an adversarial position, and they may or may not work to get the dog to stop barking. You might feel a little better though that at least you're irritating her as much as she is irritating you.

 

option B: If you want to get along, buy a white noise machine, or a fan.

 

option C: The anti-bark machine mentioned previously, along with a fan, might be the best choice, and would make a lovely Christmas present for Santa to bring this year.

[mykdsmomy]

This is tough :( I have a small barking dog. I also have a loud special needs son who rages often :(

One time I left our house and locked the security screen but didn't shut the main door because it was 100 degrees outside and I didn't want to walk back into an oven. I was gone with the kids for maybe an hour...and when I got back, my neighbor basically chewed me out saying that my "GD dog barked the entire time I was gone". I was so taken aback by his anger that I wound up sobbing for over an hour. I felt bad that she was barking that long...and the last thing I wanted was to be a nuisance neighbor :( (especially since the tenants before us would leave their dogs in the backyard for days and they would bark non stop :(

I am super hyper vigilant when it comes to letting our dog outside now. She's inside 80% of the time and when we do let her outside in the morning, if she barks one time, we bring her back inside (even that stresses me out). When we leave to go somewhere, I even close the front windows (in case she jumps on the couch and looks out the window and sees a dog) so she doesn't bark at passers by.

Our dog is unfortunately a barker :( We've tried the sonic noise barker thing, we've done squirt bottles, etc....and she STILL barks when she sees a dog walk by our house. I hate that she does it and honestly, it has me on pins and needles that at any time our neighbor could come back over and yell that she's barking (even though it's only for a few seconds at a time now). :(